US Gunner Sees War Win.

The Christian Science Monitor on Oct. 16 quoted veteran US Marine Gunner Terry Walker, 51, as saying the Iraq war was still America's war to win. The paper said Walker, on his third tour in Iraq, was a "wiry intellectual with glasses and a chirpy exuberance", who joined the Corps at the age of 17, "straight from high school" in Rittman, Ohio. Now, he directs training for the Iraqi security forces at a US base in Anbar province, driven by a personal quest to help transform the Middle East.

The Monitor said of Walker: "A serious guy, he says the US war in Iraq will have a 'revolutionary' impact on the region. It quoted him as adding: "It's how to inculcate within these people the idea that you can win this fight". The paper said he was "referring as much to the Iraqi soldiers he trains as the American public that he knows still needs convincing. He said: "It's about vision".

At Habbaniyah, a former British air base distinguished by its Western-style barracks and palm tree-lined roads, Walker leads a group of about 50 trainers and interpreters, which grew from about 15 US instructors he handpicked to go there and teach Iraqi soldiers and policemen how to shoot straight. Largely motivated by their love of shooting, the US trainers take Iraqis who have already graduated from basic training to refine their marksmanship, safety, and weapons-maintenance skills.

The hope, he said, was that the Iraqi students take these newfound abilities back to their units, making all the Iraqi security forces stronger and more professional - and able to defend their own country. But it is not clear that everyone shares Walker's optimism about his Iraqi students.

An independent panel commissioned by Congress to assess the Iraqi security forces recently gave mixed marks to those forces, but said that even with more improvement over time, the Army and police will still not be able to operate independently anytime within the next 12 to 18 months. The report concluded: "The panel finds that, in general, the Iraqi Security Forces, military and police, have made uneven progress, but that there should be increasing improvement in both their readiness and their capability to provide for the internal security of Iraq".

The report was portrayed by some US lawmakers as proof that progress in training Iraqi security forces had become a losing proposition. The Monitor said: "At this, Walker bristles. 'Are you telling me that after five years, we would cut the fish loose as soon as we got him to the boat?', he asks. On a recent day, after several Iraqis finished shooting at paper targets at a rifle range, Walker darted to one of the targets after someone had shot a particularly tight 'grouping' of rounds, ripping it from its wooden stand to make a point. 'As marksmen, they're equals', he says".

An ideologue and soldier, the paper noted, Walker joined the Marines in 1974, after the military fundamentally changed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War from a draft-based institution to one made up only of volunteers. As a warrant officer, essentially a rank which is a hybrid between an enlisted man and an officer, Walker "inhabits a class much his own and expresses his perspective more freely than his Marine brethren". And as a chief warrant officer-5, "Walker is one of the Corps' most senior experts in marksmanship".

The Monitor said: "Walker counts as his heroes Ronald Reagan, the free-market economist Milton Friedman, and Theodore Roosevelt. He's currently reading the selected writing of Mr. Roosevelt, Rudolf Steiner's 'The Freedom Philosophy', and a collection of essays published by the free-market group, The Foundation for Economic Education. Walker typically summons his heroes as he interrogates visitors in a Socratic style in hopes that they will come around to his way of thinking. And he's forthright in a military where political opinions expressed publicly can be poisonous. A proud subscriber to the conservative National Review magazine for 26 years, Walker freely owns up to his 'red-state' views.

The Monitor quoted Walker as saying: "I believe that a stable, secure Iraq at peace with itself and its neighbors is critical to the security of America... Iraqi freedom, democracy, and self-government may not necessarily look like America, but it will prove revolutionary in the Middle East". The paper said: "To hear Walker tell it, every job he's had in the Marines over the years seems to have been in preparation for the one he holds now". It quoted him as saying: "I've never been in a position where I thought I was having a bigger impact".

The paper added: "Americans who have trained Iraqis will say that to be effective requires patience and a steady hand to overcome the vast cultural differences between Arab and Western cultures. Walker has the ability to walk that bridge, say senior military leaders, who have come to rely on his expertise over the years".

The Moniter quoted Marine Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who led the 1st Marine Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as saying of Walker: "He is 'a man for all seasons' in the heave and ho of modern conflict who can out-improvise the enemy. He understands human nature, has a robust historical basis for his approach, and can build human bonds across cultural divides".

The paper said: "Walker sees his job as not to create an Iraqi force in the American image but to give Iraqis the basics and the discipline they need to defend their own country. Like many Americans who work closely with the Iraqi forces, Walker clearly has frustrations: He wishes the Iraqi Army's leave policy didn't allow soldiers to return home for weeks at a time, for example. And he grouses that culture here tolerates such a fatalistic approach to life, typically summed up in the common Arabic expression inshallah (God willing)...and uttered at challenges big and small".

The Monitor quoted Walker as saying: "We don't allow inshallah. It's either you will or you won't". The paper said: "Walker only has a few months left before his tour in Iraq is over. He appears to mean it when he says he doesn't want to leave. He may not have a choice - military men and women can serve only so long. Earlier this year, Walker received a form letter from Gen. James Conway, the current Marine Corps commandant. It was to him, he says, the saddest words he could read: After nearly 34 years of faithful service, it is time to hang up the uniform and retire from the Corps.

"Walker says he believes that he still has more to give to the Corps, yet he will abide by this final order. But not wanting to let anyone have the last word, even a four-star general, Walker took the bold step and wrote back with a bit of wry humor. 'If I thought this was going to be a full-time job', he wrote the commandant, 'I never would have joined'".